SJ Bennighof
March 13th, 2005, 05:35 PM
This was taken from a series of posts by me on IRC. I thought it might interest some of you. Thoughts, anyone?
observe:
Take Faye
Faye had the whole cyro-freeze thing going on
and she woke up in a world in which she had no place
and so the only thing she could do to function was gamble, something which requires no effort
she could cruise through life and no worry about anything
then she runs into the Bebop
and gets entangled with them
Faye tries to get away from the Bebop early on, but freak coincidences keep bringing them back together
she eventually keeps hanging out with them, but always tries to remain seperate from them
she keeps seeing stuff from her past
that beta-tape in that one episode
and she knows that she can't ever be that little girl again
in fact, the show ridiculously exagerates the innocence of the girl to drive this home
Faye's hotness is stylistically used in contrast with the little Faye in the beta-video episode
when Faye find the place where she used to life and it's been demolished
she walks through the door, goes through the crumbled halls, and find her room
all af the walls are blasted down to a foot high
and then she traces teh outline of her bed in the sand and lays down
pan-out to the surrounding landscape. the sun is setting
the coolest fucking moment in the show for Faye
jet is the constant
the bebop was the place that all of the characters except Ed were tied to and couldn't get away from even though they wanted to
Jet owned the bebop
his role in the show is an interesting paradox that still makes sense
his place in life was the bebop
clearly outlined as such
however
he had no idea what to do with the ship
every episode about Jet's past
ends with whatever connection that he had to the past being cut off
and then he reutrned to the Bebop and put it out of his mind
and continued drifting
so Jet's the personification of the lack of meaning
while the other characters fit into the lack of meaning
Ed
Ed is Kramer
Like Kramer from Sieinfeld
They're exactly alike
see, Ed's accepted the fact that her life has no meaning
so she spends all of her time on the Internet
being exactly where she wanted to be:
NOWHERE
and she just played around and had fun
and never did anything constructive except by accident
and somhow she was more successful than any of the other chracters
case in point
the mushroom episode
she runs the hell around with Ein on a motorscootrt in that one
and, totally by accident, catches some bountyheads and gets food for everyone
which everyone else had been actively trying to do
and failing at
Ed just messed around and it fell into place
and she was the only person who could actually leave the Bebop
because she hadn't connected herself to it
she just let the current carry her there
and then it carried her away
and it didn't matter one bit to her
so Spike
Spike is actually three different people in the show
Spike, Jlia, and Vicious
*Julia
all of these characters are simply extensions of Spike
Julia represents the good, optimistic side
Vicious is the evil, pessimistic side
and Spike is the man who has to choose
and can't choose
because without one, the otehr cannot exist
he tires to choose Julia
and the good side
and so he becomes locked into a drawn-out feud with Vicious
to try to eliminate that side of himself, the evil side, so he can rest and be happy with the good side
but the show tells us over and over
that this is impossible
Spike and Vicious are shown to be complete and total opposite while fighitng
because spike aligns himself with the good while fighting his own evil half
they cancel each other out
over and over
so when Julia dies, spike dies as well
because he needs both halves of himself to exist
he tries to go and kill Vicious to restore his good side
but he kills vicious, and in the same action, kills himself
or vicious does, but the symbolism is clear
and then as he's dying, he goes down the stairway
and there's all this bright light
which symbolizes his catharsis
and then
"BANG!"
and that's Cowboy Bebop
Thoughts?
observe:
Take Faye
Faye had the whole cyro-freeze thing going on
and she woke up in a world in which she had no place
and so the only thing she could do to function was gamble, something which requires no effort
she could cruise through life and no worry about anything
then she runs into the Bebop
and gets entangled with them
Faye tries to get away from the Bebop early on, but freak coincidences keep bringing them back together
she eventually keeps hanging out with them, but always tries to remain seperate from them
she keeps seeing stuff from her past
that beta-tape in that one episode
and she knows that she can't ever be that little girl again
in fact, the show ridiculously exagerates the innocence of the girl to drive this home
Faye's hotness is stylistically used in contrast with the little Faye in the beta-video episode
when Faye find the place where she used to life and it's been demolished
she walks through the door, goes through the crumbled halls, and find her room
all af the walls are blasted down to a foot high
and then she traces teh outline of her bed in the sand and lays down
pan-out to the surrounding landscape. the sun is setting
the coolest fucking moment in the show for Faye
jet is the constant
the bebop was the place that all of the characters except Ed were tied to and couldn't get away from even though they wanted to
Jet owned the bebop
his role in the show is an interesting paradox that still makes sense
his place in life was the bebop
clearly outlined as such
however
he had no idea what to do with the ship
every episode about Jet's past
ends with whatever connection that he had to the past being cut off
and then he reutrned to the Bebop and put it out of his mind
and continued drifting
so Jet's the personification of the lack of meaning
while the other characters fit into the lack of meaning
Ed
Ed is Kramer
Like Kramer from Sieinfeld
They're exactly alike
see, Ed's accepted the fact that her life has no meaning
so she spends all of her time on the Internet
being exactly where she wanted to be:
NOWHERE
and she just played around and had fun
and never did anything constructive except by accident
and somhow she was more successful than any of the other chracters
case in point
the mushroom episode
she runs the hell around with Ein on a motorscootrt in that one
and, totally by accident, catches some bountyheads and gets food for everyone
which everyone else had been actively trying to do
and failing at
Ed just messed around and it fell into place
and she was the only person who could actually leave the Bebop
because she hadn't connected herself to it
she just let the current carry her there
and then it carried her away
and it didn't matter one bit to her
so Spike
Spike is actually three different people in the show
Spike, Jlia, and Vicious
*Julia
all of these characters are simply extensions of Spike
Julia represents the good, optimistic side
Vicious is the evil, pessimistic side
and Spike is the man who has to choose
and can't choose
because without one, the otehr cannot exist
he tires to choose Julia
and the good side
and so he becomes locked into a drawn-out feud with Vicious
to try to eliminate that side of himself, the evil side, so he can rest and be happy with the good side
but the show tells us over and over
that this is impossible
Spike and Vicious are shown to be complete and total opposite while fighitng
because spike aligns himself with the good while fighting his own evil half
they cancel each other out
over and over
so when Julia dies, spike dies as well
because he needs both halves of himself to exist
he tries to go and kill Vicious to restore his good side
but he kills vicious, and in the same action, kills himself
or vicious does, but the symbolism is clear
and then as he's dying, he goes down the stairway
and there's all this bright light
which symbolizes his catharsis
and then
"BANG!"
and that's Cowboy Bebop
Thoughts?